Highway 101 stop prompts federal lawsuit against Rohnert Park police

The Texas man believes his rights were violated during a 2017 traffic stop.|
JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Texas man who said he was pulled over on Highway 101 by unidentified officers who took his marijuana during a 2017 traffic stop near the Mendocino- Sonoma county line has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Rohnert Park, claiming one of its officers abused his authority by committing theft, along with other crimes.

The plaintiff, Ezekial Flatten, a former school district police officer from San Antonio, has accused Rohnert Park Officer Joseph Huffaker and the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians' then-police chief Steven Hobb of pulling him over and detaining him without legal justification on Dec. 5, 2017.

“What they were doing on the side of the road when they robbed me, it was illegal,” said Flatten, who made his allegations public earlier this year, first in complaints to Mendocino County authorities and then in accounts shared with several media outlets.

He contends he acquired the cannabis lawfully, with a medical marijuana recommendation, from a Humboldt County farmer.

Flatten, who goes by Zeke, spurred other Highway 101 motorists to step forward with allegations of being wronged by Rohnert Park police when he began speaking out about his case.

His lawsuit names Huffaker and Hobb as the officers who took the 3 pounds of marijuana from his SUV. They did so in an illegal search without properly identifying themselves or documenting the stop, according to the 11-page complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

“It wasn't just sloppy police work,” Flatten said in an interview Friday. “They had no patches, no name tags, no badges.”

Huffaker, who remains a city employee, could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Hobb, who now works for the Clearlake Police Department, said he did not know about the lawsuit and denied any involvement in Flatten's stop.

“I'm not going to comment on that because you guys don't tell the truth,” Hobb said. “I had nothing to do with that. It's malicious and I was not involved.”

Suit latest in series

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of civil rights cases brought against Rohnert Park's police force. It also names the Hopland tribe and former Rohnert Park Sgt. Brendon Jacy Tatum, who resigned in June under a cloud of allegations about his on-duty behavior.

Huffaker and Tatum, who often worked together, were taken off duty in April and placed on administrative leave when the city began its ongoing internal investigation into the role Flatten alleges they had in his traffic stop.

The internal probe was expanded in late July, one week after the sudden resignation of Rohnert Park's longtime director of public safety, Brian Masterson, and three weeks after The Press Democrat began publishing a series of stories examining the city's aggressive program to confiscate drugs and money by pulling over drivers on Highway 101, the main thoroughfare between the famed Emerald Triangle marijuana growing region and the urban Bay Area.

Many of the traffic stops occurred near the Sonoma- Mendocino border, 40 miles north of Rohnert Park.

After Masterson's announcement, the city hired former Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, now an independent police auditor, to conduct a broad look into the drug-and-cash interception operations.

Since 2014, those missions have netted the city more than $2.4 million in cash and seized assets - more than any other law enforcement agency in Sonoma County.

Tatum played a lead role in the seizures and was decorated by the city for his actions. But Flatten, in his lawsuit, accused the former sergeant and Huffaker of conspiring “to expand the legitimate interdiction mission to one of personal financial gain.”

Air of mystery

They seized “thousands of pounds of marijuana and hundreds of thousands of currency without issuing receipts for the seizures, without making arrests for any crimes, and without any official report of the forfeitures being made,” the suit alleged.

Flatten's attorney, Izaak Schwaiger, said they intend to prove those far-reaching allegations in trial.

Tatum and his attorney did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

No law enforcement agency has publicly come forward to report its officers pulled Flatten over, lending the case an air of mystery. Flatten's seized marijuana was never publicly reported as booked evidence by Rohnert Park or any other law enforcement agency that normally patrols the area.

Flatten said one of the two men who stopped him said they were with the ATF. An official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told The Press Democrat earlier this year that no ATF officer was involved in a traffic stop with Flatten.

Flatten first lodged his allegations with the Mendocino County Sheriff's and District Attorney offices soon after the December stop in an attempt to determine who pulled him over. About two months later, his name appeared on an internal police report written by Tatum, prompting questions about whether it was Rohnert Park officers who made the stop.

Tatum wasn't present during the traffic stop, Flatten contends, but became involved later by trying to cover it up - adding Flatten's name onto a police report about a different traffic stop near the Mendocino County line, according to Flatten.

In an interview earlier this year, Tatum said he had mistakenly included Flatten's name on the report.

Rohnert Park Assistant City Manager Don Schwartz said Friday he was aware of Flatten's lawsuit, but he and others within city government had not yet read it and were unable to comment on the allegations.

Change in procedures

Schwartz said the city responded swiftly to Flatten's original complaints that Rohnert Park officers were involved in his stop. The public safety department has made changes to its procedures for report writing and evidence, he said, following the recommendations of Jordan, the outside auditor.

“We said we will take them (the complaints) seriously, and the fact that we've implemented another third party's recommendations is another example of us taking concerns seriously and making improvements where we have the opportunity to do so,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz declined to say whether Huffaker was still on leave or has returned to duty.

Tatum, in an interview about his resignation this summer, said the investigation was stressful and he decided to leave the law enforcement profession.

Schwaiger, Flatten's lawyer, said they intend to prove in the case that a group of officers were conducting traffic stops without sufficient cause in order to confiscate drugs and cash. The officers involved did not turn over all of the contraband to their departments, Schwaiger said.

“We have a group of rogue officers who have been a scourge on this county, and apparently other counties, in a way that's only now coming to light,” Schwaiger said. “This lawsuit is designed to cast more light on shadowy behaviors on the people we're supposed to trust with our safety and our civil rights.”

The Dec. 5 traffic stop lasted about five minutes. It occurred on a remote stretch of southbound Highway 101 near Frog Woman Rock between Hopland and Cloverdale as the roadway follows the Russian River.

The officers wore no department insignia and their dark SUV had no logo, Flatten said. They searched his vehicle and opened a sealed box taken from the back of Flatten's rented SUV that contained about 3 pounds of cured marijuana, the complaint said. One of the officers stated that “cannabis was taking over in California, and advised him that he may be getting a letter from Washington,” according to the complaint.

Harassment alleged

The officers left, taking the marijuana and without giving Flatten a citation.

Flatten said he quickly identified the primary officer he spoke with on the roadside minutes after the traffic stop when he stopped in Cloverdale and found a picture of Hobb on the Hopland tribe's website. He said he identified Huffaker as the second officer through a cellphone video sent to him by another motorist who was stopped by Rohnert Park police on Highway 101.

An ex-police officer himself who worked about four years for a San Antonio- area school district, Flatten said concern about the traffic stop led him eventually to report the encounter to the FBI.

Flatten claims the officers have additionally violated his right to free speech by retaliating against him for speaking out about his concerns, making him the “subject of surveillance, harassment, threats and intimidation designed to chill his speech,” the complaint states. A mechanic in September found a GPS tracking device installed under the dashboard of Flatten's vehicle and he received an anonymous message on social media stating he was “playing with fire,” he said.

Other civil rights cases

Rohnert Park's officers have been the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging civil rights violations.

Last month, a federal jury found Tatum and other officers had carried out an unlawful search of a Rohnert Park family's home. Tatum entered the home through a back door with his gun drawn. The jury awarded the family $145,000 in damages - a sum that includes additional damages for Tatum's actions during the 2014 search, plus attorneys fees.

Another ongoing federal civil rights case was filed by the parents of a man who died in May 2017 after being restrained and shot with a Taser during an encounter with Rohnert Park police.

Interim Public Safety Director Jeff Weaver, who was brought on in August after the abrupt retirement of Masterson, said he has not seen the lawsuit and was in no position to comment on it Friday. Weaver said he has high confidence in the quality of the work being done by department officers.

“As someone who came from the outside, I'm very pleased with the hard work and the capability and professionalism that I've encountered there,” Weaver said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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